Homeland Security Deputy Press Secretary Brian Doyle, charged last week in an Internet underage sex sting, has resigned. HSA Chief Michael Chertoff's reaction to Doyle's alleged crimes sounds like a shrug of the shoulders and "Sh*t happens."

"From time to time, there will be instances when misconduct occurs," Chertoff said,

And catch this. Chertoff says:

"We try to weed out those who pose a security risk," Chertoff said in a briefing with reporters. "I don't know ... that background checks with people hired will predict future behavior."

Yet, now it turns out this wasn't Doyle's first time getting caught:

Update: I just accessed the court documents, now unsealed. The case was filed by the Government as USA v. Removable Cosmetic Dental Appliances. Here's the Application and Affidavit for Seizure Warrant. Here's the order granting the stay. Here's the actual seizure warrant. Scroll to the bottom of the post for my conclusion after reading the documents. The ATF agent who submitted the affidavit knew the grills might not be removable. There was no authority in the warrant to remove the defendants from the jail to take them to a dentist.

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If this wasn't reported in a national paper like the the Seattle Times, I wouldn't believe it, but it's true.

A defense expert and the attorneys for two men facing federal drug charges in Tacoma are crying foul over efforts by federal prosecutors and officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to have the gold-capped teeth -- commonly called "grills" or "grillz" -- removed from their clients' mouths.

"I've been doing this for over 30 years and I have never heard of anything like this," said Richard Troberman, past president of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and an expert on forfeiture law. "It sounds like Nazi Germany when they were removing the gold teeth from the bodies, but at least then they waited until they were dead."

There's been a lot of complaining about why the police waited two days to get a search warrant in the Duke lacrosse player incident in which an stripper-dancer claims she was brutally raped by three players. The police were trying to evaluate her claim, but there was this to take into consideration:

According to a 2002 police report, the woman, currently a 27-year-old student at North Carolina Central University, gave a taxi driver a lap dance at a Durham strip club. Subsequently, according to the report, she stole the man's car and led deputies on a high-speed chase that ended in Wake County.

Apparently, the deputy thought the chase was over when the woman turned down a dead-end road near Brier Creek, but instead she tried to run over him, according to the police report. Additional information notes that her blood-alcohol level registered at more than twice the legal limit.

Defense lawyer Joe Cheshire confirms the 911 caller was the other dancer at the party. It couldn't be anyone else as as I'm concerned.

by TChris

After a Texas jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, the parties agreed to let Judge Chris Oldner decide whether Dena Schlosser was guilty of murder for "cutting off her 10-month-old daughter's arms and leaving the bleeding baby in her crib to die."

Several psychiatrists testified that Schlosser lost touch with reality, suffered severe mood swings and experienced religious hallucinations and delusions. One doctor said she told him she wanted to cut off her baby's arms and her own limbs and head and give them God.

The defense faulted Schlosser's husband for not getting her adequate mental health treatment and also blamed her preacher, Doyle Davidson, who believes only God can cure mental illness.

Judge Oldner rendered his verdict today, finding Schlosser not guilty by reason of insanity. Schlosser will be committed for mental health treatment.

by TChris

Two "highly decorated" New York City police detectives were each convicted of 70 crimes arising out of their side jobs as hit men for the Luchese crime family. TalkLeft background on the nefarious careers of Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa is collected here. The men were responsible for at least eight murders. They'll be sentenced, presumably to life, on May 22.

Duke University, one of the finest in the country, is in a tough spot. The Lacrosse team embroglio seems no closer to being resolved. After Wednesday's suspension of a student and resignation of the team coach, morale is low. Duke is trying to rally and today President Broadband announced separate committees will examine and report back to him as quickly as possible on the following:

• examining the culture of the lacrosse team;

• investigating the Duke administration's response to the sexual assault allegations;

• examining the student judicial process and disciplinary procedures;

• launching a Campus Culture Initiative, a rigorous self-examination "to evaluate and suggest improvements in the ways Duke educates students in the values of personal responsibility."

• creating a presidential council, made up of people from the Durham community, national higher education circles and Duke, that will scrutinize Duke's responses to the lacrosse team incident and advise the president on whether the responses are appropriate and effective.

I spoke tonight with some Duke parents I've known for 25 years whose son is a Freshman at Duke. They are pretty freaked out and their son, who adores Duke, is confused. They said this couldn't come at a worse timing -- acceptance letters go out April 1, and those accepted have until May 1 to make their decision. So it is this four weeks high school seniors have to decide whether to go to Duke. Many of those that get into Duke also get into Harvard, Yale and other Ivy League schools.This Lacrosse incident could cause Duke to lose some of its brightest admission candidates, should they or their parents be scared by the lacrosse incident.

Update: Ryan McFadyen, the lacrosse player who lived in the dorm who wrote the email described below has been suspended from Duke.

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The coach of the Duke lacrosse team has resigned. The Dean cancelled the team games for the rest of the season. This is on the heels of new developments in the lacrosse players' alleged rape case. The Court unsealed and Smoking Gun has published the search warrant affidavit and search warrant return for the dorm room and vehicle that was searched by police on March 27.

Less than an hour after a woman said she was raped at a Duke University lacrosse party, authorities say one of the team's players sent an e-mail message in which he talked about hiring strippers and killing them.

A lawyer representing one of the team's members said the e-mail, while in bad taste, does not show that a crime happened at the house, and in fact could help show what team members have said -- that no assault happened.

Another defense attorney agrees:

Joe Cheshire, a lawyer representing one of the team captains, said the e-mail helps support the team's story. Team members told police, according to Cheshire, that they hired women to dance and those women left the party early.

Homeland Security Deputy Press Director Brian Doyle appeared in court today.

No bail was set, and he only spoke to answer routine questions, such as verifying his name. He was joined at the hearing by a woman that his attorney, Barry Hefland, identified at Doyle's life partner of 15 years.

Helfand said he hopes that at a bond review hearing, Doyle will be given bond so he can turn himself in to authorities in Florida without the need for extradition.

I'm sure people want to comment on HSA Deputy Press Director Brian Doyle and the underage sting. I've been waiting for a few more facts before commenting on it. The main question for me is whether the internet profile of the sheriff's deputy posing as a 14 year old stated she was 14, or whether there are email, phone or chat conversations in which she tells him she is 14.

How could he be stupid enough to have given a 14 year old he met in an AOL chat room his real name, office and cell phone numbers, to tell her he worked for Homeland Security and to send her regular, non-sexy photos of himself?

Why would he think a 14 year old would be interested in a 55 year old man?

Or, did he believe she was over 18, even though he knew she lived with her mother? Turns out she wasn't a 14 year old girl, but a Sheriff's deputy posing as one on the internet, so in fact she was over 18.

Newsweek has an excellent wrap-up of the Duke Lacrosse team rape allegations, including a few new facts. One seems to make more viable a theory I floated in comments here and mentioned on Fox News yesterday-- that there may have been a physical altercation over the money, rather than a rape, that led to the broken fingernails.

In recounting the accuser's side, Newsweek writes:

They had just begun their performance when the men became "excited and aggressive." According to Nifong, one of the players called out, "Did you bring any sex toys?" When the women answered no, a man said, "That's OK, we'll just use a broom." Frightened, the strippers ran outside to their car. One of the men followed and coaxed one of the women to come back in. When she did, she told police, she was forced into a bathroom and held down while three men forced her to have sex. According to Nifong, she claimed that the men robbed her and that she broke off several fake fingernails clawing one of her attackers.

In the Gus Boulis murder trial (in which Jack Abramoff has been subpoened to a depositon) it has just been disclosed that the star defendant, alleged Mob Boss Anthony Moscatiello, has been playing both sides of the fence for years, doubling as an FBI mob snitch. It sounds like an episode of the Sopranos, but its real.

Moscatiello's outing as an FBI informant might cause some embarrassment for federal authorities. But its impact won't be entirely clear until more evidence surfaces about what he told FBI agents about his involvement in the Boulis murder and previous criminal investigations.

Sensitivity over Moscatiello's 15-year career as an FBI informant prompted the Broward State Attorney's Office to hold a closed-door meeting with defense attorneys in Circuit Judge Michael Kaplan's chambers on Friday. Some of the lawyers asked the judge to keep Moscatiello's statements given to the FBI after Boulis' murder under wraps.

Moscatiello ended his snitching after the Boulis slaying. But what about the mobsters he put in jail over that time period whose lawyers weren't told he was a snitch?

The best coverage of the story so far: There was a party at a house rented by three Duke lacrosse team members. They hired two exotic dancers. The dancers were black and 46 of the 47 team members are white. Later, one of the dancers alleges she was raped by three white males at the party. Both allege racial epithets were hurled at them.

The 46 white players go in for DNA tests and deny any sexual activity occurred. Duke cancels team games until more is known. Many in the media are convinced the players are guilty and have elevated the story into one about "classism, racism and sexual violence." Even charges of a "blue wall of silence" among team players have been bandied about.

Bloggers are lining up to castigate the players. The latter is so hot to convict she even mistates the most basic fact of the case in the description of her blog.